Friday, October 12, 2007

Great Visit

Two days before my parents flew in for their visit, they received a call. The nature of this call was that the hotel they had reserved had apparently suffered flooding and would not have a room. (I looked out at the sunny skies and said, "Huh?" Matt thinks they suddenly remembered it was Marathon weekend and decided to ditch everyone and raise their rates. Yep, he's even more cynical than I am.) There were no good rooms to be found. Due to their bad backs, my parents can't sleep in anything smaller than a king size bed. We had a queen. An aging queen, I might add, that was getting rather uncomfortable for this aging princess.

After mulling over this problem for a few hours, Matt had a suggestion: "Let's buy a bigger bed!"

Gulp.

We measured the bedroom and found that if we robbed Matt of his bedside table and removed the trunk from the foot of our bed, we could fit a California King in our room and my parents could stay with us. We found one - the "W" hotel bed, of all things - on sale and it seemed to be the best option, what with the 10-year warranty and all. However, the bed was still a big expense and so we decided to - if you'll excuse my pun - sleep on it.

I worked out a deal with my parents the next day in which they loaned us some money for the bed, and I gave Matt the green light.

My husband called 1-800-mattress at 11 am. He talked them into same-day delivery and then raced home on his bike to get there ahead of the truck. Our incredibly luxurious, huge new bed arrived a mere three hours later. When I got home from work, it was set up in our room and our old bed had been transformed into a daybed/guest bed down in the playroom. As soon as we started thinking about this idea, Matt had brilliantly gone to amazon.com and ordered new sheets with 2-day delivery; they arrived about an hour later.

My parents were dizzy from these goings-ons before they even arrived at our monkey house, and that's saying something. My mother's claim that we move at the speed of light felt pretty accurate. But we were so happy to have made this speedy accommodation; it was absolutely wonderful having them stay in our home, and we are thrilled to know that we can have them here anytime they want to come.

And, heck, now that they're gone we've got a really incredible bed!!

I'll leave you with some of the photos my dad took during the visit. (He's a professional photographer - on the side, of course, because he's that talented.)

7 comments:

I have never heard the phrase "California King bed" other than here and from my sister, who is married to a guy who's, like, seriously something like 6'7". She told me it is actually larger than a traditional king bed. Wow!

But more details, please! Did you buy a new headboard/footboard too? Not just a new mattress? Or how did you work that out? One day I want to move our full-size bed into our guest room (which currently only has a twin) so that actual COUPLES can stay at our house, and then get us a bigger (queen) bed. Probably when Julia moves out of her toddler bed and needs an actual twin.

Oh, and how did you dare order a bed you haven't laid down on? Mattresses are so different! Didn't you need to test it out to see if was, like, firm enough or soft enough?

We've had a California King ever since we moved, years ago, into a HUGE apartment. This house is much smaller but believe me, we made room for the bed. Ours even has a name: The Bradford. Congrats on going upscale.

1. Yes, I am that cool. But apparently not cool enough to remember to order a dust ruffle. So we're still looking at the box spring every time we walk into the room.

2. I am not 6'7", but I am tall enough to appreciate the extra length of the Cal. King; my toes did sometimes dangle over the end of our queen bed.

3. The Cal. King is four inches longer than a regular King (and Queen), but four inches narrower. That made all the difference, as a full King would have meant getting rid of Jordan's nightstand or losing the ability to open the closet.

4. Well, sure we'd never tried that bed, but I've stayed at more than a few W Hotels in my business-travellin' day, and I can tell you that there's really nothing finer. I don't typically notice beds and pillows and stuff like that when I travel, but anytime I stay at a W, I say to myself, "Now, that's a bed!"

5. The bed was not on sale. It is, apparently, never on sale. But it cost about the same as a bed that was on sale for what they claim was 50% off. Beds are like suits, apparently, in that they mark stuff way up so they can mark it way down. The W and I agree that that's a silly way to treat your customers.

6. 1-800-Mattress rules. I think I spent 8 minutes, tops, on the phone with George, who sounded like he hailed from New Jersey and had a no-nonsense attitude I really liked. "You want it today? Jeezuz! Okay! lemme call my guy in the warehouse. Hold on.....He'll be there at four. You gotta be there."

Oh I am sooo jealous!! Our queen bed is not big enough for my husband who is tall and the occasional child or dog. Plus, I'd love to have a place to put the queen for guests (instead of the 20 year old pullout sofa!)

I want details, too. Do you love it? How did you decide which one to get?

Almost as much as I love the fact that you all actually commented about my post about our new bed, I love that my husband notices we don't have a dust ruffle. I don't brag about him enough here, but that's only because other women would be so envious they wouldn't ever come back.

I think Shannon had an unanswered question or two (after Matt's very thorough information session)- no, we have never owned a headboard/footboard, but that would have surely complicated things!

And, yes, I bought a bed without ever even touching it because I trust Matt explicitly. (Just as he has entrusted me with finding us two apartments without his approval in the past - we are a great team!) The W bed is the perfect combination of being very firm but the pillow top makes me feel like I'm sleeping on clouds. Literally. I've never slept on a bed like this, and can't believe it's OURS.

And the CA King length is awesome - not to mention the extra width. So comfy and easy when the kids drop in when they wake up! And now, since I've been up since 5:30am and it's now, well, the next day already, I'm going to sleep on my pile of clouds.